what is a coltriever?
The Coltriever is a hybrid combining the intelligence of a Border Collie and love of a Golden Retriever
The Coltriever is the result of the responsible breeding of quality Border Collie and Golden Retriever adults. In recent years the English Shepherd has also been introduced into the blood lines of the Coltriever (DNA test results for English Shepherd & Border Collie comes back almost akin to Border Collie in origin).
Our dogs come from established healthy lines and are bred for temperament and health with longevity in mind.
The Coltriever is an amazing breed that is intelligent, obedient, loving and agile. They are good natured, friendly, loyal, and playful and make wonderful companions for families or singles. They are incredibly intuitive and smart and have been used as therapy dogs for autism and as alert dogs for diabetes as well as other types of services.
These beautiful dogs resemble Flat coat retrievers in color, coat, and size. When you get to know this breed you will be struck with their versatility, brains, stamina, beauty and compassion. They also have an uncanny ability to think and problem solve independently making them a valuable companion, competitor, or service dog.
The Coltriever will often have a Golden Retriever shaped head and muzzle yet are smaller than a typical Retriever. Their colors can vary from black, black and white, shades of gold, gold with white markings, as well as apricot red. Coltriever’s have a double coat that can stand harsher climates and water. They will blow their coats in the spring and in the fall. Like the Golden and the Border they are moderate shedders.
When fully grown, our Coltrievers are about the size of a small to medium Golden Retriever. Females are 45-55 pounds and males 55-65 pounds. They are intelligent and easy to train. Most pups are able to catch onto the basics of potty training after just 3 days! The Coltriever doesn’t have the typical high-strung temperament that normally comes with a Border Collie. They are most like Golden Retrievers in temperament and disposition.
The intelligence of this breed requires lots of time, consistency and attention when they are puppies. They need exercise and firm boundaries. If your boundaries are not clear or you are a pushover and not the one in charge, you will have trouble fast. They are too smart for you to be lazy in your time, training and attention. It will get them into trouble or cause trouble because they are bored and will become insecure if they do not know who is in charge. Leadership first, then love and attention.
Our dogs are given an incredible solid foundation with early neurological stimulation, age appropriate desensitization and extensive socialization. We utilize a program called Puppy Culture. By the time these puppies go home they will have started potty training and as well as obedience training where they learn to mand (manding or having them sit when they want attention).
All our dogs live with us and are a part of our family and do not live in a kennel. We put countless hours into each puppy so that they will have the best possible start in life. The first 12 weeks of a puppy's life is a crucial developmental window--when gently take advantage of--helps prepare them to be more resilient and enables them to unleash their puppy potential! We give you the tools to pick up where we left off.
They have been trained to eliminate on wood shavings. This way, you can put a handful of these shavings in the area in your yard you want them to “do their business" and they will go to that spot. They come with a written health guarantee and a welcome home gift bag.
We take responsibility for every puppy. We will take them back at any age for any reason and re-home them. Our commitment is to never have one of our Coltriever’s in an animal shelter. *Liberty Farm is one of the only places in BC that is breeding Coltreivers.
We also offer LIFETIME support if you need it. We want every dog to thrive, so we make sure we are available in the future to answer your questions or address any concerns.
Each puppy comes with... a one-year health guarantee against genetic defects. A health and immunization record. A welcome home gift bag loaded with important information on getting your puppy started in your home, and a sample schedule for the first few months of their life. Puppies will have their first immunizations and be dewormed
how do I go about reserving a puppy?
deposits
Our puppies are $2500cdn. We require a $500 deposit to reserve a puppy. This deposit is non-refundable (except in the case that the puppy you reserved becomes unavailable through sickness, death or injury). We do accept deposits before a litter is born, we maintain a waiting list for each litter. Before being put on a waiting list, you must be "approved" by us either by phone or email. The criteria for that are explained below.
The waiting list puts you on a priority list for a litter. Since we want to provide the absolute best matches between puppy and owner we are very purposeful in our matching process and actually do not do picking merely by colour. We believe dogs, like people have personalities and temperaments, so matching a puppy with similar temperament and drive to their owner is very important to us. We have had very positive results this way. We can of course prioritize whether male or female, but our first priority is to find the best match possible for you and your family.
before placing a deposit
We do have a questionnaire. Before we put you on a waiting list, we have a few questions we need to ask, just to make sure our puppies are a good fit with your family. The most important one has to do with your daily routine. Is there a person or another dog that is home all day during the day? We have a strict policy that we do not sell a puppy into a home where he or she will be left alone for several hours each day. Coltrievers are very social dogs, puppies especially. They are babies, and simply cannot be left alone for hours at a time. We'd be happy to explain that policy in detail over the phone. There are no exceptions made for this rule.
picking a puppy
The pups cannot be handled until they are at least 6 weeks old. This is when their immune systems become a little more robust and their personalities begin to emerge. Before that time you can watch from a distance, interacting with us and with each other, and meet the parents, you just can't handle them.
We take photos at birth and at 2-3 weeks when eyes are opened and post them. These are group shots. At four weeks old, we will have each of the puppies identified with a collar. At 5 weeks the puppies' personalities just begin to emerge. Just like people, puppies have temperaments that vary. There is a process we go through to match the right puppy to their new owner. We want to make sure there is a great fit. This is why simply picking by color preference is not something we do. The picking process order is determined by your position on the waiting list, as explained above.
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Puppies are not released to their new homes before the age of 9 weeks.